I recently read an interesting article in my son’s school’s newsletter. It was a teacher of 28 years’ experience who for the first time in his career had another teacher sit in on a lesson with the purpose of self-improvement via a collaborative approach. In his words:
"So, after 28 years in the wilderness, I took the plunge this week and welcomed a colleague into the protected walls of my classroom. My colleague, many years younger, technologically savvy, and very cool, quietly sat in the back corner and wrote copious notes on his observations. At first, I was conscience of his presence, but quickly got into the swing of the lesson. By its conclusion, my Year 12 students had understood the concepts, or so I thought, and the lesson went to plan. The observation was followed up with a meeting and my colleague arrived with four pages of typed notes! After reminding him where he got his meal ticket from, our discussion commenced. What transformed was one the most valuable professional development experiences in which I have participated during my teaching career. My colleague sensitively raised issues, made suggestions, provided praise and left me with some strategies to work on before our next encounter in the second term. The entire experience proved very enriching and will certainly, in the long run, improve the educational outcomes for the boys in my classroom."
It reminded me that every risk professional could benefit from similar support. When we are facilitating or taking on a tough meeting influencing senior executives on risk, how often do we have a peer sitting in the wings to provide us feedback? My tip is to search out a peer to provide that feedback from time to time so you can continually improve.
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